Macon, Georgia

The city of Macon is located at the center of the state of Georgia and belongs to Bibb County, a part of the Macon Metropolitan Area. The city of Macon is also commonly known as the "Heart of Georgia", being the biggest city in central Georgia.

The city boasts of its educational institutions, schools and universities, where the quality of education offered to the students is outstanding. Macon has a strength of approximately 30,000 college students, making it the third highest in Georgia. Some of the famous colleges and universities like Wesleyan College, Central Georgia Technical College, Mercer University and many more are very popular in Georgia and also attract a large number of students from across the country.

Macon is also very well interconnected with good transport facilities like well laid roads and highways. Most of the people in Macon use private automobiles as their primary mode of commuting. The Macon Transit Authority has set up a mass public transit system which is very feasible and easily accessible for tourists and it takes one around to all the major historical sites and tourist attractions. The popular tourist attractions of Macon are Ocmulgee National Monument, Fort Benjamin Hawkins, Luther Williams Field and many others, which are worth visiting with family and friends.

Macon is a great place to live in. There are interesting options for entertainment, education, affordable living and many other benefits the city offers. The city is known for its ambient social atmosphere and its lively residents.

Macon History

Macon, Georgia is located in the region of Ocmulgee Old Fields, these Fields were home to the Creek Indians and their ancestors for about twelve thousand years prior to the arrival of the Europeans. The Creek Indians were the ones who cultivated the forests and fields around the place where the city of Macon is today and they constructed the funeral mounds and temples that still stand.

Before the city of Macon was established it was a site of Fort Benjamin-Hawkins. It was President Thomas Jefferson who passed the order for the fort to be constructed in 1806 when the Creeks decided to cede their homes toward the east of the river. The fort was built on the banks of Ocmulgee River to safeguard the new frontier, as the fort was a key military supply center point during the Creek War and the War of 1812.

The fort later became a major trading center for many years before it was abandoned. A replica of the fort was built on the hill in Macon, by this time numerous settlers had moved into the region and they renamed the fort as the Fort Hawkins Newton. In 1822 when Bibb County was established the city was chartered in the county seat in 1823 and authoritatively named Macon in honor of Nathaniel Macon, a statesman of North Carolina and also because most of the early settlers in the city were from North Carolina. The planners of Macon intended to create a city within a park and went about making a city with spacious parks and tree covered streets.

Macon thrived as it was located on the fall line of the Ocmulgee River and the trade of cotton helped in growing its economy as it was a surplus product. Stage coaches, cotton boats and a railroad constructed in 1843 added on to the prosperity of Macon. The Wesleyan College the first chartered women's college, was founded in Macon in the year 1836. At the time of the American Civil War Macon was the authorized arsenal of the confederacy. Camp Oglethorpe was a site in Macon that was used as a prison for enlisted men and captured Union Officers. In 1864 the camp was banished and the prisoners freed.

In 1864 the city hall of Macon temporarily served the state capitol and was reformed into a hospital for the wounded. A referendum was held in 1855 in order to determine the capital city of Georgia but unfortunately Macon came in last with approximately 3,800 votes. Along the era of reconstruction into the 20th Century, Macon has grown as a prospering town of Georgia and started to serve as a transportation center for the whole state. Today it is prosperous and amongst the most healthiest cities in Georgia.

About Macon, Georgia

Macon popularly known as the "Heart of Georgia," is the biggest city in Central Georgia located approximately 136 km to the south of Atlanta. A small portion of the city also lies in the adjacent Jones County. As per census records in 2010 the population was about 91.350 making it the seventh most populated city in the whole of Georgia after Sandy Springs, Georgia.

Macon is a home to several well known schools and institutions of higher education, and a number of historic museums and tourist attractions. The city is well connected with national highways and it's served by the Smart Downtown Airport and the Middle Georgia Regional Airport. The Macon Transit Authority (MTA) is the public transit system who operates public buses within Bibb County. The MTA also operates a tourist trolley system that visits the major historical sites in the city like the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, the Tubman Museum and the Hay House.

The people of Macon have a very unique culture and different festivals that they celebrate during the year like the International Cherry Blossom Festival, which is a 10-day festival when the cherry trees blossom. The Mulberry Street Festival celebrated in the last week of March in which an arts and crafts fair is held, and the Georgia State Fair held in the first week of May. Macon Film Festival is a very popular annual film festival held in February, which celebrates independent films.

The city also has a number of parks which add on to the beauty of the city like the Bloomfield Park, East Macon Park, Freedom Park, Memorial Park, Rosa Jackson and others. Macon also has good hospitals with all the modern day features and equipment needed for patients. Some of the well known hospitals in the city are Central Georgia Rehabilitation Hospital, Coliseum Medical Centers and the Medical Center of Central Georgia.

Macon is also very famous for its restaurants and shops; the H&H restaurant is a famous restaurant attended by Allman Brothers, the Nu-Way Weiners is famous for its hot dogs across Georgia. Baseball is one of the many sports that are encouraged in the city of Macon and the city also has its own baseball clubs like the Macon Music and Macon Giants.

The city also attracts tourists from across the country for some of its well admired historic sites and museums like the Georgia Hall of Fame, Museum of Art and Sciences (Macon), Tubman African American Museum and the Allman Brothers Band Museum. Macon has a very pleasant climate making it favorable for tourists to visit the city during any time of the year.

About Bibb county, Georgia

The city of Macon is located in Bibb County. The city of Macon is also referred to as the "Heart of Georgia", since the city and the county are located in the center of the state of Georgia. The county is part of the Macon Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The County was created in 1822 by an act of the Georgia Legislature. The county was official formed the next year and Macon was designated the county seat. The county was created from parts borrowed from surrounding counties of Houston, Jones Monroe and Twiggs. The county is governed by the County Commission which has five elected members and a chairman. A sheriff is elected and he is responsible for the jails in the county.

Macon is also amongst the three Fall Line Cities of Georgia along with Columbus and Augusta. The meeting point of the hilly region of Piedmont Plateau and the coastal plain are referred to as the Fall Line. The Ocmulgee River is the main river that runs through the county and due to this Macon has been one of the chief producers of cotton and textile manufacturers.

The county is spread across a total area of 255 square miles according to the United States Census Bureau, out of the total area 250 miles is land and the rest is water. The county is located about 900 feet above the sea level. The county experiences a humid, subtropical climate.

According to an official U.S. census taken in the year 2000 the county had a total population of about 153,887. In 2007 there were estimated 154,255 inhabitants, 24,220 families and 38,444 households living in the county. 1,742 people every square mile was the population density and the racial makeup of Macon was 62% African American, 35,45% white, 0.065% Asian, 0.50% were from other different nationalities. Out of the 38,444 households 30% of them had children aged under 18 living, 33% were married couples, 37% of them were non-families and 25.8% had widow householders. Out of all the households 21% of them had a single living alone aged 65 or above. The median family size was 3.08 and a household was about 2.44. The median age was about 35 years and for every 100 females they were around 80 males and for every 100 females aged 18 and over there were 72.7 males. The Average income of a household was $27,405 a family earned about $33,699. Males had an average income of $29.900 and $22,800 for females. Only 25.5% of the population was below the poverty line including 37.8% aged under 18 and 16% aged 65 or over. The per capita income of the county was $16,082.